The Wall Street Journal - 20.03.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, March 20, 2020 |A

Is Life

Worth Living?

Sick Souls, Healthy Minds

By John Kaag

(Princeton, 210 pages, $22.95)

BOOKSHELF| By Heller McAlpin

J

ohn Kaag fervently believes that his academic discipline,

philosophy, can help combat despair by elucidating

fundamental ideas about freedom and what makes life

significant. Like his fellow popularizer Alain de Botton, he is

a proponent of the practicalapplication ofphilosophy as an

elevated form of self-help and self-realization.

Mr. Kaag memorably mixed memoir with intellectual

history in “American Philosophy: A Love Story” (2016), a

Sleeping Beauty-like tale about the awakening of both new

love and a long-somnolent library—the collection of a 19th-

century Harvard professor—in the New Hampshire woods.

“Hiking With Nietzsche” followed two years later, an uphill

scramble in which the writer cleverly tracked Friedrich

Nietzsche’s thoughts and footsteps through the Swiss Alps

in an attempt to better absorb the great German

philosopher’s exhortations to

“become who you are.”

With “Sick Souls, Healthy

Minds,” Mr. Kaag goes for the

hat trick, returning with a

close examination of American

pragmatist William James, an

ever-fresh wellspring of inspi-

ration for him, especially in

periods of distress. In particu-

lar, he finds solace in James’s

equivocal answer to the open

question: “Is life worth living?”

He argues that James’s response,

“Maybe. It depends on theliver,”

is less likely “to send jumpers off the

edge” than a bald assertion of life’s value,

which can make anguished people feel that they are missing

something patently obvious to everyone else.

Although pithy and exacting, this study of James’s life and

work is less enthralling than Mr. Kaag’s previous books.

Readers will be saddened to learn that the love affair that

blossomed in idyllic New Hampshire is no more, though some

may have sensed that the bloom was already off the rose in

“Hiking With Nietzsche.” An account of this schism—a story

of loss, of falling and learning “to stand straight once

again”—is, the author suggests, “a book for another time.”

While we respect Mr. Kaag’s right to privacy, “Sick Souls”

feels too guarded and circumspect to engage us as personal

history. Even so, any excuse to reconsider James’s ideas—

which straddled psychology and philosophy and homegrown

American religion—is welcome.

William James (1842-1910) was the eldest child of a remark-

able family that included multiple Henrys (father, novelist

brother, son) and two Alices (his diarist sister and, after 1878,

his wife). After a suicidal bout of “disgust for life” in early

adulthood, he rallied to craft a personal and pragmatic philos-

ophy that Mr. Kaag dubs James’s “existential life preserver.”

Beginning with James’s dark days—and the author’s own—

this book makes a case for why James’s work, which fore-

shadowed 20th-century French existentialism, is still relevant

in an age “defined by affluence but also depression and acute

anxiety.” James, who coined the phrases “stream of

consciousness” and “the bitch goddess, success,” remains

decidedly modern in his respect for the sanctity of personal

freedom and individual differences.

Mr. Kaag argues that “James’s polymathic abilities were,

partially, responsible for his divided self—part poet, part

biologist, part artist, part mystic. He was pulled in too many

directions, like a man on the rack...andinhisearly years

he nearly failed to hold himself together.” But Mr. Kaag also

flags the intellectual roots of James’s despair. He explains that

James felt “philosophically stuck,” mired in the conundrum of

determinism versus free will and overwhelmed by a sense of

meaninglessness. “Determinism’s refusal to acknowledge

possibility” induced feelings of powerlessness and impotence.

James apparently faced mental illness without doctors,

though Mr. Kaag points out that, with his Harvard medical

degree, James “wasthe doctor.” The cure for his sick soul,

however, was philosophical. In 1870, he found “an intelligible

and reasonable conception of freedom” in the work of his

French contemporary Charles Renouvier, which enabled him

to take a salubrious leap: “My first act of free will shall be to

believe in free will,” James declared.

Decades later, in his lecture “The Will to Believe,” James

delivered a similar argument for “voluntarily adopted faith,”

a move he argued did “not violate the strictures of reason.”

“Believe that life is worth living,” he elaborated in “The

Sentiment of Rationality,” “and your belief will help create

the fact.” It’s a declaration that captures pragmatism in a

nutshell—which, Mr. Kaag explains, is “about life and its

amelioration. That’s it. And that is enough.”

James’s advice to transcend ingrained habits and embrace

uncertainty, wonder and hope brings to mind Samuel Beckett’s

remark that “curiosity is the hair of our habit tending to stand

on end.” Mr. Kaag explains James’s position that openness to

mystery, and curiosity about how the world lives and moves,

“might be reason enough to stay alive.” Of course, Mr. Kaag

readily admits that overcoming depression is not as simple as

mind over matter, and alludes to his own recurrent recourse

to medications and yoga. (Psychotherapy isn’t mentioned.)

Reading “Sick Souls” sent me back to James’s essays,

including his fantastically literate 1895 address to the

Harvard YMCA, “Is Life Worth Living?” In the first few pages

alone, he quotes William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman and

Jean-Jacques Rousseau to illustrate the contrast between

those who are constitutionally optimistic and those more

attuned to what he calls “the profounder bass-note of life.”

John Kaag, who by his own admission is “not always

entirely sold on life’s value,” writes with the fervor of one

determined to hear life’shighernotes. His arguments about

the power of philosophy to improve your life may not convince

you, but in these anxiety-inducing times, it may be worth

testing the buoyancy of James’s existential life preserver.

Ms. McAlpin reviews books regularly for the Journal,

the Washington Post and NPR.org.

The philosophy of William James is all about

life and its amelioration. ‘That’s it,’ says its

adherent John Kaag. ‘And that is enough.’

Sanders Can Learn From ‘Sewer Socialists’

B

ernie Sanders probably
won’t accept the presi-
dential nomination at
July’s Democratic convention
in Milwaukee. But he and the
party would be wise to take
a long look at the only so-
cialists to win elections con-
sistently in a major Ameri-
can city. For most of the
period between 1910 and
1960, mayors from the So-
cialist Party of America ran
Milwaukee—at a time when
it was one of the largest cit-
ies in the country. The rea-
son for their long success:
frugality.
They implemented a range
of new programs, but paid
for them largely through
gains in efficiency rather
than tax increases. In effect,
they took an entrepreneurial
approach to government, im-
proving systems, cutting
waste, and finding creative
new sources of income.
Milwaukee’s first Socialist
mayor, Emil Seidel (1910-12),
cut what the city paid for
brooms nearly in half. It
worked politically because
everyone knew what a broom
should cost. If Seidel got a

good deal on basics like

brooms, perhaps he could do

the same with steel for

bridges or cement for roads.

The second Socialist

mayor, Daniel Hoan (1916-40),

peppered his speeches with

cost-cutting anecdotes, often

emphasizing how his admin-

istration brought down gar-

bage-collection fees. Milwau-

keeans loved it and made

Hoan’s the longest Socialist

administration in American

history.

Hoan bragged that Mil-

waukee’s trash-collection

costs were 90% lower than

any other major American

city’s. His administration in-

creased revenue by packag-

ing the city’s sewage and

selling it. The product, called

Milorganite, remains a staple

at garden centers across the

country.

The third Socialist mayor,

Frank Zeidler (1948-60), was

adamantly dedicated to keep-

ing the city budget in the

black. Zeidler was so frugal,

he never owned a car, and in-

stead rode the bus to work.

His penny-pinching ap-

proach created so much good-

will that Sen. Joe McCarthy

of Wisconsin never spoke ill

of Zeidler and was even will-

ing to be photographed with

the mayor, because he under-

stood the mayor’s “everyman”

persona wasn’t an act.

Socialists in the east de-

rided the Milwaukee mayors

as “sewer socialists” because

they disdained Marxist revo-

lution and focused on things

like extending sewage lines to

poor neighborhoods. The Mil-

waukeeans shot back that the

Eastern socialists couldn’t get

elected dogcatcher.

As mayor of Burlington,

Vt., Mr. Sanders was fairly

frugal—and found success,

winning re-election three

times. But in running for

president he has become the

opposite of a sewer socialist.

His campaign is all about

revolution. And while the

Milwaukee socialists might

have been intrigued by Medi-

care for All, free college and

the Green New Deal, they

would have balked at the cost

of Mr. Sanders’s vision.

Mr. Sanders famously has

three homes: “I work in

Washington, house one; I live

in Burlington, house two. And

like thousands of other Ver-

monters, I do have a summer

camp.” This isn’t a great look

for a socialist. As mayor of

Milwaukee, Zeidler lived in a

1,200-square-foot residence

in a working-class neighbor-

hood just north of downtown.

He and his wife raised six

children there. And it’s still in

family hands.

Mr. Sanders could even

learn something from the Mil-

waukee socialists’ response to

the Spanish flu pandemic. In

1918 Hoan was quick to close

schools and churches, but he

refused to close bars. He un-

derstood that in an era before

convenience-store six-packs,

one of the few affordable

pleasures of working-class life

was a quick beer after work.

Curiously, Milwaukee’s flu

outcomes were among the

best in the nation.

Mr. Trinklein is an Emmy-

nominated filmmaker whose

documentary “America’s So-

cialist Experiment” airs on

public television this June.

By Michael Trinklein

In Milwaukee, a trio

of frugal mayors won

the people’s trust.

OPINION

Coming in BOOKS this weekend

The ‘glass house’ of Mies van der Rohe • Thomas Gresham,

banker to Elizabeth I • The bliss of solitude • E.E. Evans-

Pritchard, father of social anthropology • America and

the Irish Famine • Sam Sacks on new fiction • & more

The left is
never apt to
let a serious
crisis go to
waste, as we
see with its
daily use of
the coronavi-
rus pandemic
to bash the
Republican
administra-
tion. The bigger danger is the
efforts it is already making to
exploit the panic for its lon-
ger-term goal of destroying
U.S. capitalism.
Socialist Bernie Sanders led
the charge last Sunday in his
Democratic primary debate
with Joe Biden. Bernie rolled
out his usual themes, this
time through the virus lens.
The pandemic “exposes the
incredible weakness and dys-
functionality” of the U.S.
health system, he said; the
cure is centralized, socialized
care. Americans can’t get the
drugs they need because “a
bunch of crooks” run drug
companies, “ripping us off ev-
ery single day.” The virus ex-
poses the “cruelty and unjust-
ness” of an economy that
allows “big-money interests”
and “multimillionaires” to
profiteer off “working fami-
lies.”
He’s hardly alone. The cor-
onavirus has “laid this bare:
America was less prepared for
a pandemic than countries
with a universal health sys-
tem,” declared Vox. The pan-
demic has “inflicted new
stress on a system already too
unequal to function,” wrote
Sarah Jones in New York mag-
azine, lecturing on the need

Coronavirus Vindicates Capitalism

to “devolve power from

wealthy interests.” “The coro-

navirus crisis exposes the stu-

pidity of Trump’s healthcare

policies,” railed Los Angeles

Times columnist Michael

Hiltzik. A Morning Consult

poll suggests this opportunis-

tic sloganeering is resonating,

with 41% of the public more

likely to support universal

health-care proposals amid

this pandemic.

Yet these claims are fantasy.

Here’s the lesson of the virus

so far: Relying solely on gov-

ernment bureaucracy is insane.

To the extent America is

weathering this moment, it is

in enormous part thanks to the

strength, ingenuity and flexi-

bility of our thriving, competi-

tive capitalist players.

Government will save us?

How’s that working out for It-

aly? Even Mr. Biden made this

point during the Sunday de-

bate, reminding Mr. Sanders

that “you have a single-payer

system in Italy. It doesn’t

work there.” Italy had 62

cases on Feb. 22; nearly a

month later, that number is

41,000. It has recorded more

deaths (3,400 plus) than any

nation on the planet. Crucial

miscommunication in early

days between the central gov-

ernment and hospitals re-

sulted in a system that is now

overwhelmed and rationing

treatment.

The U.S. is working hard to

avoid its own worst-case sce-

nario, and the federal and

state governments are playing

crucial roles in coordinating

resources, imposing public-

health measures, and keeping

the public informed. But the

single biggest mistake so far

came from the government.

The feds maintained exclusive

control over early test devel-

opment—and blew it. The Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention’s failure delayed an

effective U.S. response, and

the private sector is now rid-

ing to the rescue.

The “crooks” at drug com-

pany Roche had started on

their own high-volume test in

January, and were finally able

to get approval from the Food

and Drug Administration.

Google is up with a website

advising people on symptoms;

retailers like Walmart and

CVS are converting parking

lots for drive-through tests;

private labs are standing by to

process them.

As for other “moneyed in-

terests,” no fewer than 30 Big

Pharma and small biotech

firms are racing for treat-

ments and vaccines. Moderna

turned around a vaccine batch

in just 42 days. Gilead Sci-

ences is already in Phase 3

trials for its remdesivir treat-

ment for Covid-19. Straight off

President Trump’s announce-

ment of FDA approval for an-

timalarial drugs to treat the

disease, Bayer announced it

would donate three million

chloroquine tablets.

Meanwhile, the loathsome

“multimillionaires” at Com-

cast, Verizon and Sprint are

guaranteeing to keep Ameri-

cans online for the next two

months, regardless of who can

pay. Adobe and Google are

making remote-learning tools

available to schools, universi-

ties and parents. U-Haul is of-

fering free self-storage to col-

lege kids. Fannie Mae and

Freddie Mac are suspending

foreclosures. The list of cor-

porations voluntarily offering

sick leave, pay for contractors

and vendors, work-at-home

flexibility, and donations to

affected communities is enor-

mous—and inspiring, espe-

cially given the general finan-

cial distress.

Anyone who thinks this

would be happening in a social-

ist America is smoking some-

thing. Government doesn’t

have anywhere near the money,

the speed or the creativity to

stay ahead of a crisis like this—

and the Trump administration

deserves credit for embracing

its private-sector partners. The

business altruism on display is

partly the usual American

spirit, but it has been encour-

aged by free-market policies

that have underwritten three

years of economic boom and

put companies on a better

footing to confront hard times.

And the profit motive and com-

petition liberals detest remain

the beating heart of the re-

sourcefulness U.S. companies

are now bringing to bear.

If the U.S. is to overcome

this crisis and future ones, we

need more of these animal

spirits—not less. That’s the

takeaway of this pandemic.

Write to [email protected].

Drug companies will

save lives, even as

Bernie Sanders is

denouncing them.

POTOMAC
WATCH
By Kimberley
A. Strassel

Losing a par-
ent is always
difficult, es-
pecially as
important fi-
nancial and religious arrange-
ments must be made during a
time of intense grief. A global
pandemic doesn’t help. But
when my mother died on
March 3, my family still had no
idea how difficult it would be
to stay safe while still honoring
her in the Jewish tradition.
The Jewish response to
death is communal. The local
community comes together to
support the mourners, who
open up their home for a week
of shiva. During this time the
kaddish, or Jewish prayer for
the dead, is recited at services
three times a day. The
mourner then may leave the
home but remains obligated to
say the kaddish three times
daily for 11 months. According
to Jewish law, these obliga-
tions must be fulfilled in the
presence of a minyan,or
prayer quorum of 10 men over
the age of 13.
The current coronavirus
crisis creates a challenge for
those wishing to adhere to
these Jewish mourning cus-
toms, especially in light of Ju-
daism’s prioritization of pub-
lic and individual health over
ritual obligation. In Maryland,
where I live, synagogues
closed their doors last week-
end to services and other

A Minyan in the Time of Social Distancing

community activities. In New

Jersey, communities could not

have communal prayer ser-

vices in the home or even out-

doors. In the interest of safety,

similar changes are occurring

throughout the country.

During normal times, when

one is home and lives in a

Jewish community, meeting

the kaddish obligation is rela-

tively simple. Synagogues post

minyan times on their web-

sites. In heavily Jewish areas,

there are plenty of options

that make planning manage-

able. Elsewhere, every one of

the approximately 1,000 min-

yanim over the course of 11

months can present a chal-

lenge. I knew a rabbi in Ta-

coma, Wash., who spent nearly

two hours each day driving to

and from a Seattle-area syna-

gogue for the 35-minute morn-

ing service.

Even if you are from a ro-

bust Jewish community, the

faithful can face difficulties in

finding a minyan while travel-

ing. Resourceful travelers

have held minyanim in air-

ports, on planes, in streetcars

or in theme parks. Some have

had to “Uber in” eligible Jews

to get the 10 needed for a

minyan.

On this most recent Sab-

bath, before even stricter pro-

tocols went into effect, I ful-

filled the obligations to my

mother by praying at outdoor

minyanim, including two that

took place in my driveway. At

the conclusion of the Sabbath,

15 of us gathered around a

streetlight, as the prayer end-

ing the Sabbath takes place

after it turned dark but be-

fore we were allowed to turn

on lights. No one said any-

thing, but everyone knew to

keep a safe distance. Every-

one had his own prayer book

to minimize the chances of

spreading disease through

shared surfaces.

Even that option is gone

now. The Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention has

issued guidelines against

gatherings of 10 or more peo-

ple, and our rabbis have sus-

pended minyanim. From my

previous service as a public-

health official, I fully support

the need for social distancing

and I am adhering to the

stricter guidelines, as is my

community. My rabbi ruled

that in the absence of my

own kaddish, I should if pos-

sible designate someone else,

in an area not under the

same public-health con-

straints, to say the prayer for

me. I must also study a Jew-

ish text, the Mishna, during

the periods in which the

prayers would typically be

said. The reason that Jews

study this written collection

of oral law during mourning

is that the Hebrew word

mishnais an anagram forne-

shama,or soul. The kaddish

is said to protect the souls of

the dead during the period of

heavenly judgment.

Kaddish proxies and study

are only backup plans, and I

am discomfited at missing out

on my primary obligation.

This past weekend, in one of

my last recitations of kaddish

for the foreseeable future, I

thought of past generations of

Jews who encountered even

more difficulties gathering to-

gether—during pogroms, wars

or the Holocaust. The nearby

friends, still at a safe distance,

comforted me and joined me

in prayer.

As American society unites

to protect against the virus in

the days ahead, it will be hard

not to feel alone as I join

other Jewish mourners in try-

ing to meet my sacred obliga-

tion to the departed.

Mr. Troy, a former deputy

secretary of health and human

services, is author of “Shall

We Wake the President? Two

Centuries of Disaster Manage-

ment From the Oval Office”

(Lyons Press, 2016).

Fifteen of us gathered

loosely around a

streetlight to pray

for my late mother.

HOUSES OF
WORSHIP
By Tevi Troy